Aug 9 Trustees get their guy: Mike Bobinski

This morning following months of rumors & conjecture, Beghoff, Daniels and the Board of Trustees got their guy: GT's...check that...PURDUE'S Mike Bobinski.

If you don't know his name, don't feel bad, many college sports fans outside of Ohio don't. He was at Georgia Tech for the last three years. Prior to that, he worked as a fund raiser and administrator at Xavier. Before his 9 year stint as a fund raiser and assistant to the President at Xavier, he was X's AD for 6 years...before that, he was at Akron as AD for five years...and Associate AD at Navy for five years. Clearly he didn't study at Morgan Burke's school of Athletic Directorship...so that's a good thing, I guess.

Before serving as AD and Assoc. AD, he pitched at the University of Notre Dame and graduated in 1979...Not sure what he was doing in the 80s.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a really good dude...he hired Josh Pastner waaaaay back in April at GT after firing a coach who won 42% of his games...my research tells me that's a higher winning percentage than Coach Hazell's. So will accountability be Bobinski's calling card? Perhaps.

GBI, Mitch Daniels and Bobinski all say that he's not a status quo guy. And as his job changes every five years or so indicate, he's not...that's good! Things aren't great within Purdue's athletic department, in case you haven't been paying attention (once again, don't feel bad, most college sports fans outside of Indiana haven't been paying attention either).

Weeks ago, Oliver Luck, Keena Turner and Eric Hyman were all rumored to be on Purdue's shortlist. Football guys...guys that were to be hired with a purpose to clean up the mess that is Purdue football. Yeah- that sounded pretty good to me. Less than a week ago, it sounded like the 65 year old Hyman would be hired. I envisioned him coming in, hiring Sumlin in January, Purdue going to a bowl in 2017, and Hyman curing shortness and baldness in his five years at Purdue before retiring and riding into the sunset. **Sigh**

Instead, Purdue hires a guys who has never made a major football program hire...who inherited a damned good football coach at GT and didn't even have a football program to worry about at Xavier. He raised money...which Purdue needs, I guess (in spite of having more outside income than in the program's long history). Bobinski's new gig will give him $40+ million from BTN each year (before this TV house of cards comes crashing down in the next decade). So fund raising might not have been the most important skill for Purdue's AD hire.

My deeeeeeep research this morning led me to believe that winning football games raised a hell of a lot of money for different athletic programs. In contrast, Purdue's football program has not done so in the past few years.

Purdue's basketball program seems relatively stable- Painter is tied up until well into the 2020s, like it or not, and after a few solid seasons, Purdue's program is back on stable, yet un-noteworthy ground.

Have you ever gone to the doctor for a broken limb and been given vitamins and a cool glass of water? That's what Daniels and the trustees just did for Purdue's athletic program, it seems. Sure, Bobinski won't do any harm to the patient...but I'm skeptical to believe he'll do a ton of good either.

Then again, things suck pretty badly right now in a number of sports...too bad football is the one that pulls the train. And to continue this analogy too long, this engine barely has any coal.

I'm behind Mike Bobinski for no other reason than he is Purdue's AD now; like it or meh. Sure, he's not a Purdue guy, in fact he's a grad from a place that I loathe. But now, he is the Purdue guy...and in spite of his hire being as uninspiring as this guy, it could be worse, I guess. Purdue probably listened to the groans of potentially hiring from inside the Athletic Department or from the Trustees...so good move there. They hired right in between - a safe-ish, uninspiring AD that wasn't as bad as some of the candidates and wasn't even close to many of the positive scenarios.

The committee managed to hire someone that really no one outside of West Lafayette (and maybe Atlanta) will even notice...REJOICE!!

As I said via Twitter, Bobinski's resume is pretty good and I'm not really against him...but I remain firmly skeptical of the decision makers at my Alma Mater.

There is much to prove.

We'll have more via Twitter, FB and on this very site in the coming days, if not hours. Stay tuned.